Red Bull England – Should Red Bull find an English club to expand with?

In recent times, the ownership of football clubs has become a bigger and bigger topic.

Fans of clubs such as Blackburn, Cardiff and Charlton have demonstrated against foreign owners who do not have the club’s best interests in mind, so would a multinational corporation like Red Bull take the step of buying a team in the English football pyramid?

Firstly, this article will have to have an element of an opinion, as this issue has a critical moral centre as to whether it is right for a club to be sold for foreign investors to do with what they please. Red Bull currently own 4 professional football teams, two of which are based in Europe.

The two European teams, since being bought by the energy drink company, have both qualified for the Champions League and are consistently bringing in talented young players with a high potential sell on, such as the reported £70 million fee being demanded for Leipzig midfielder Naby Keita.

As for Red Bull finding a successful candidate in English football, the answer could be for Red Bull to target a club with a long tradition of performing at the top level of English football but have found themselves struggling. This would differ from the method they have used elsewhere of buying a lower league team and developing from there.

It should be said that Red Bull have already attempted this with a deal having been in place to buy Leeds United in November of 2016, only for the deal to fall through. This method would allow them to already have a structure of a formerly top-level team in place and to mould that into the Red Bull model.

This process comes with its own risks, however, as the fan bases of these established clubs are some of the most defensive of their institutions, meaning that the process of buying the club and transitioning to the Red Bull model should be carefully considered so as not to become reviled like Vincent Tan at Cardiff or Roland Duchatelet at Charlton

Whatever the plan may be for Red Bull, they have certainly achieved success for the clubs they have bought. The move for an English side would come with risk but they have shown themselves willing to take risk with their German franchise, with the rewards being worth the considerable risk.

What are your thoughts: Should Red Bull buy an English team? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below. Don’t forget to vote in our poll too.

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